You can do a market survey to learn about your market ... or a market survey to prove your point ... or a market survey to generate interest in the issue on which you're doing your survey. And unless you're totally disinterested in the subject on which you're surveying, it's all too easy to bias your survey design and implementation towards producing the results that you want, whatever your intentions.

We lunched yesterday in a cafe in Melksham. It's a regular haunt; works well for us because of a wide range of light meals available, and the chance of a five minutes walk on a nice day rather than staying at one spot throughout the whole course. And a gentleman was going around tables, asking questions of the customers; as each new customer group arrived and ordered, he spoke with them. And clearly welcomed officially by the people running the place. Yet he carefully avoided approaching our group of four men, and another group of working aged men while concentrating on the pensioners and mums with young kids who formed the rest of the clientèle.

I know the staff a little, and I asked the lady whom I paid what the survey was about - "we're talking to our customers and seeing if we provide what they're looking for - seeing how we can improve things". A noble objective, and something we strive to do to. But a lesson also in how to tell one of your regular customers that he and the people he's with don't fit in - that the requirements and thoughts of the working age male don't actually matter, as they're not really a part of the business plan.

So I'm going to suggest that the survey may reveal some interesting ideas. It will probably prove what it was intended to prove in the first place (due to poor sampling methods), and that it has also effected the market that it was asking about by marginalizing some of the customer base.

It's all too easy for me to look and criticize, and also all too easy for us to make the same errors when we take note of customer inputs or run surveys. Yet we're perhaps just as guilty at times - looking at inputs from our customers with rather more care than inputs from those who inquire but who don't book because of the lack of a facilities for children, or of a full cooked breakfast, perhaps. But then we have only limited rooms and can't be all things to all men and women. We should concentrate on doing a really excellent job in our chosen market and not in trying to serve all the markets. Perhaps our local cafe is telling us, truthfully but unintentionally, that they don't really want our business and we should go elsewhere?(written 2007-11-17, updated 2007-11-19)

Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles

G501 - Well House Consultants - Customer Service[4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)[4078] Train works for me! - (2013-05-02)[4077] Palty or Parliamentary? - (2013-04-30)[3835] The Information age - not yet truly with us? - (2012-08-12)[3808] Can you put names to faces? - (2012-07-19)[3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)[3294] It's not just about the jam in the sandwich - (2011-05-19)[3271] The importance of feedback - (2011-04-30)[3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)[3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)[2961] Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors - (2010-09-19)[2880] Getting in touch - Please allow me to see you when you are online - (2010-07-21)[2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)[2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)[2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)[2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)[2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)[2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)[2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)[2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)[1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)[1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)[1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)[1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)[1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)[1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)[1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)[1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)[1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)[1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)[1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)[966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)[961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)[944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)[852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)[841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)[725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)[717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)[650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)[628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)[621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)[609] Been on a course, but still not got it? - (2006-02-16)[569] Instructions for bright people - (2006-01-19)[566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)[552] Keeping Customers Informed - (2006-01-02)[482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)[440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)[393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)[350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)[327] How far should our support go - (2005-05-28)[265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)[233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)[195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)[189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)[150] Confession - (2004-12-13)[126] Feedback shows the tip of an iceberg - (2004-11-22)[91] On line every 24 hours - (2004-10-17)[72] On Customer Service - (2004-10-03)

This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at
http://www.wellho.net/horse/ -
the diary and writings of Graham Ellis.
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